NATO: upholding Civilisation, protecting Individuals. The unconscious dimension of international security

• Main Author: Mota, Sarah Carreira da
• Other Authors: Pureza, José Manuel, Barrinha, André
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: NATO; Western civilisation; Civilised Subject of Security; Individualisation of Security; Unconscious; OTAN; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/32135

Tese de doutoramento em Relações Internacionais na especialidade de Política Internacional e Resolução de Conflitos, apresentada à Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra This dissertation offers a critical analysis of the North Atlantic Alliance Organisation (NATO) within the field of critical security studies, fundamentally aiming at two concurring goals: innovating the conceptual reflection on the history of the organisation; and deconstructing the psychosocial processes underlying the establishment of prevailing meanings in contemporary international security. It is motivated by a fundamental epistemological concern over how hegemonic forms of knowledge have shaped not only collective perceptions and representations of the world, but also how they have influenced their very becoming. This concern is related particularly to the impact unconscious forms of knowledge may have on the prevailing readings and practices of contemporary international security. The analysis focuses on NATO as an object of study, in which the unconscious dimension of knowledge is fundamentally questioned and searched for in relation to international security. It interrogates to what extent the seemingly natural evolution of NATO’s referent object of security – what it aims at securing – may be framed by unconscious processes. This study specifically looks at the relation between the security of civilisation and the security of individuals, as they have been conceptualised and practiced throughout NATO’s evolution. How did NATO’s priorities evolve from a seminal concern toward the “civilisation of its people” in 1949, to the protection of individuals after the Cold War? How have these two substantially different referents cohabited throughout NATO’s evolution? As both the concept and the narrative on civilisation have been superficially approached in current analyses of NATO, this dissertation suggests a historicisation and a genealogy of both referents of security of the Alliance, drawing on a critical discursive analysis. ...